Heretic

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

one who adopts, and probably propagates, religious views which the Church to which he belongs, or the Christian Church in general, deems erroneous, and imperiling the eternal salvation of anyone holding them. Heresies began in the Apostolic age. There were, for instance, Hymeneus and Philetus, who said that the resurrection was already past (II Tim. ii: 17), and apparently the Nicolaitanes, though they are censured for hateful deeds rather than doctrines (Rev. ii: 6). The Scripture direction for dealing ecclesiastically with heresies is given in Titus iii: 10: "A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject." When the Church gained an influence over the civil power, it induced the latter to superadd civil to the ecclesiastical penalties for heresy. Those who differed from the opinions of the imperial house received many kinds of ill usage , but it was not till A. D. 382 that a law of Theodosius I., directed against the Manichæans, authorized capital punishment for heresy. This law led to the execиtion at Treves, in A. D. 385, of Priscillian, Bishop of Avila; he is believed to have been the first person put to death by a Christian government for heresy. HEREWARD (here-) commonly called HEREWARD THE WAKE, an English yeoman or squire who held the Isle of Ely against William the Conqueror in 1070-1071. When William had succeeded in encompassing the English patriot and penetrating to their camp of refuge, Hereward, scorning to yield, cut his way through to the fastnesses of the swampy fens N. HERISTAL (hā'ris-täl) or HER- STAL, (hers'-), an industrial town of Belgium, on the Meuse, immediately N. E. of Liège, of which it is virtually a suburb. It is mostly inhabited by workmen, who find employment in the coal mines and the iron and steelworks. Ruins still exist of the castle of Heristal, the birthplace of Pepin, the mayor of the palace; and his great-grandson Charlemagne frequently resided here.